How To Live Happily Ever After
by spilling off the canvas
Summary: We all wonder what happened to our beloved Sophie and Howl after the book ended. How "hair-raising" can their lives get? A how-to guide on living after love.


How to live Happily Ever After

Chapter One: When You're In Love

Things were much calmer now, the Witch of the Waste being forever gone. Well, really, that was a lie. Life in a Moving Castle was still quite as mind-boggling as ever.

"Sophie, could you bring me that spell on the bench?" Michael said, pointing to a scarlet-wrapped package. He was at the Kingsbury door, helping a young man with his Problems.

"Here it is," she grumbled. Sophie was in a very cross mood today. Costumers were coming in and out, in and out, both for spells and in the flower shop. Michael, bless him, was doing his best to manage the magical side of it, but Sophie was still left all to herself with a crowded shop and no chance to rest. Moving around was much easier now that she was no longer a ninety-year-old woman, but a person gets tired after running around for seven hours.

It also didn't help that Howl had been in the bathroom for the past three hours.

Or that today was her birthday.

Sighing, Sophie walked into the room that led to the flower shop. It was just as she'd left it: crazy and brimming with people wanting to buy. She would have to restock the shelves soon, again. _It's a wonder there is so much business today, _Sophie thought,_ especially since Howl's charmed suit is gone. _

Getting to the front desk was a mammoth task. Sophie pushed through the mass of flower-buyers, crying, "Pardon me!" at least a thousand times. When she reached the desk, she collapsed on the wood surface, craving the cool feel on her flushed skin. A moment later, Sophie realized that there was someone standing in front of it. A boney, little, old woman with a frizzy tuff of hair around her head waited for her patiently, though she looked more exhausted than Sophie. It didn't look like it took much to wear her out. Sophie remembered what that felt like.

"Pardon me," the woman said in a craggily voice, "I was wondering if you had any roses. I do love roses so much."

"I don't have any roses in the shop, ma'am," Sophie said. In a moment, the old woman's face fell even deeper.

"Well, if there's none left …" she said, disappointed.

Guilt weighed Sophie's heart. She couldn't just let the woman leave without her roses, after taking the energy to come in the first place, anyway. If she came to find roses, then roses she would get.

"Wait!" she cried, "Give me a moment, and I'll check in our supplies."

"Oh, thank you, dear!"

Bracing herself, Sophie walked back through the crowd (which was not unlike walking through quicksand, she thought, if she ever did that). With each step, she seemed to sink further and further behind from the door. Sophie was quite breathless by the time she passed through the castle and into the garden.

All at once, she felt herself relax. Lilies, hyacinths, and other aromas wafted around her, clearing her much-cluttered head. Sophie walked to the place where they normally kept their roses, in the back corner, just at the edge of the used to be Waste. There was a single, pink-lipped rose left. Euphoric, she snipped the stem and put the rose into a tiny vase for the old lady.

Sophie entered the castle and headed straight for the shop door, eager to give the woman her rose. If she had looked to the left a bit, she would have noticed Howl also walking straight towards the shop. Or perhaps Howl should've looked a bit to the right. Either way, neither of them saw each other, and as they reached for the handle, Sophie and Howl rammed into each other and fell to the floor with a crash. The tiny, glass vase that held the rose shattered with a dainty plink. The pink-lipped rose was shredded into pieces.

"Oh, Howl!" she cried, looking at the demolished flower, "I was going to give that to an old woman! She said she loved roses."

Howl seemed oblivious to her distress. "You really should look more carefully where you walk, dear. It's hardly proper to go banging around everywhere," he said, picking off glass and leaves from his new black-and-green suit.

That was all Sophie could take.

"Banging around? Banging around! You're the one who spent hours in the bathroom, and then knocked me over when I was trying to run the shop, which, by the way, you so fully left me to do. Ugh!" she cried, feeling angry tears pulse from her eyes. "And you don't even remember that today is my birthday!"

Howl looked at her with his shallow, green eyes. "Of course I remembered it was your birthday, Sophie! What do you think I took so long to get ready for?"

Sophie dropped her head in her hands, unable to look at him. Sometimes she really wondered why they were In Love.

Disclaimer: Everything belongs (sadly) to the wonderful and talented Diana Wynne Jones.

**A/N: Hopefully, the next few drabbles will be a little bit longer. I hope you enjoyed it! (reviews are much appreciated ****J****) **


End file.
